Trump has changed his mind about imposing duties on passage through the Strait of Hormuz. What the media is writing
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- Trump has changed his mind about imposing duties on passage through the Strait of Hormuz. What the media is writing
US President Donald Trump has abandoned his intention to charge for the passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz. A day earlier, he announced the levy, which caused discontent in the Persian Gulf countries and among shipping companies. Instead of a transit fee, the White House suggested that the allies invest in the United States. What the media write about the situation in the Middle East is in the Izvestia digest.
Bloomberg: Trump lifted the duty on passage through the Strait of Hormuz
Trump abandoned his plan to impose a 20% duty on cargo shipments through the Strait of Hormuz after US allies in the Persian Gulf urged him to cancel this initiative. Trump announced his decision on July 14, the day after the levy was introduced, saying that expected revenues would be offset by upcoming direct investments in the United States from the Persian Gulf countries. He did not specify the dollar amount or which countries would participate.
Bloomberg
"I have decided to replace the 20 percent levy levied by the United States as compensation with trade and investment agreements that various Gulf states will conclude with the United States," Trump wrote on social media.
Trump's change in position on the fees highlighted a shift in US policy towards the Strait of Hormuz. American officials have alternately insisted on maintaining free passage and debated who, if anyone, should charge for transit, while Iran insists on controlling the strait. When asked by reporters about the reasons for the refusal, Trump replied that the leaders of the Persian Gulf countries — Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates — strongly recommended that he focus on investment commitments instead.
The Washington Post: Trump refused to introduce fees for the passage of ships
Trump said the United States was abandoning an earlier threat to impose a "reimbursement fee" on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. He said that the strait is "open to all shipping except Iranian," blaming the restrictions on the leadership of Tehran. According to him, the United States will continue the blockade of Iran, which will affect only "ships arriving at and departing from Iranian ports or carrying anything related to Iranian cargo."
The Washington Post
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi responded to Trump's initial comments. "The president is absolutely right,— Araghchi wrote in a somewhat ironic post on X. — Anyone who ensures the safe passage of commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz should receive compensation for this service. Iran has always been the GUARDIAN of the strait and will remain so FOREVER. 20% is, of course, too much. We will be fair."
The prospect of introducing fees for passage through the strait alarmed maritime authorities and representatives of the shipping industry, who strongly condemned the idea, arguing that freedom of navigation is an integral part of international law. The German shipping company Hapag-Lloyd said that charging fees for passage through international waters would be "fundamentally wrong."
CNN: how Trump was persuaded to abandon plans to introduce fees
Trump shocked Gulf allies and many of his aides with a plan to impose passage fees through the Strait of Hormuz, sparking an international struggle to convince him to drop his demand. The unexpected order triggered a 24-hour race within the administration and across the Middle East to decipher the details of the proposal, which Trump apparently came up with on the fly. Although he canceled his plans, the episode once again highlighted the pragmatic nature of Trump's approach to foreign policy, even in the midst of a protracted war.
CNN
[July 13] At the White House, aides were hastily working through the logistics of creating an unprecedented toll collection system, including determining who would pay the tolls and how they would be charged. Many officials and independent analysts initially assumed that the costs would fall on the shoulders of the shippers, but the situation became even more complicated after another statement by Trump that US allies in the Persian Gulf would pay instead. Meanwhile, the leaders of the same Gulf allies were desperately trying to get through to Trump to dissuade him from this idea.
By the morning of July 14, numerous appeals from various countries had been successful. Instead of the United States charging tolls, Trump announced that these countries had promised to invest new, unspecified amounts in American projects. The Gulf states have already committed to investing trillions of dollars in the United States, although it remains unclear how much of these funds they will actually spend over the next few years.
Reuters: Iran threatens to block even more important sea routes
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has threatened to close "all other export corridors beneficial to the United States and its allies," Iranian media reported after Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz and the United States re-imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports. Tehran is making it clear that it can use its Houthi allies in Yemen to block the Bab al-Mandeb Strait leading to the Red Sea, which will open a new front against Washington and endanger two of the world's most important energy arteries.
Reuters
This narrow Strait connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden, through which Saudi oil exports and much of the world's maritime traffic pass. According to the Iranian Press TV channel, a senior Houthi official warned on July 13 that the group was ready to close the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, a move that he said could lead to a sharp increase in oil prices to $200 per barrel if Saudi Arabia continued to attack Yemen.
The Houthis have already shown that they can stifle global trade through Bab al-Mandeb. After the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023, this Iranian-backed group launched attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea, claiming to target vessels affiliated with Israel and supporting the Palestinians. The latest threat to global shipping came a day after the US military announced the launch of a new series of strikes "to continue to weaken the Iranian capabilities used to attack commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz."
Associated Press: the Senate blocked the defense bill in protest against the war with Iran
Democrats in the U.S. Senate have blocked a $1 trillion annual defense bill, refusing to advance this bipartisan package that would substantially increase Pentagon spending, including higher salaries for military personnel, in protest of Trump's war on Iran. The leader of the Democratic minority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, announced his disagreement, and other key Democrats said they could not support the annual national defense bill. The bill was supported by 50 senators, 46 opposed.
Associated Press
"The National Defense Authorization Act should not be an authorization for the kind of recklessness that we see in Iran," Schumer said before the vote. "Donald Trump has no right to drag the American people into a war that he cannot explain and does not know how to end, and then demand that Congress turn a blind eye to it."
The vote in the Senate took place the day after the White House officially notified Congress of the resumption of bombing of Iran, effectively violating the fragile truce in the conflict between the United States and Israel. Congress has repeatedly tried to impose restrictions on the administration's actions, voting more than a dozen times on various resolutions on military powers that could stop the fighting. But these efforts have not been successful, as the majority of Republicans in the House of Representatives and the Senate support Trump.
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